An interesting study by a Danish security firm found the main reasons people get viruses is because they don’t update their software.

The main vectors for getting infected are via old versions of Adobe Flash, Adobe PDF Reader, Java and Microsoft Internet Explorer. So if you use these, make sure you keep them up to date!

The conclusion of this study is that as much as 99.8 % of all virus/malware infections caused by commercial exploit kits are a direct result of the lack of updating five specific software packages.

As they say, prevention is better than a cure. As annoying as it is, it’s safer to keep your software up to date (and less annoying than getting a virus).

Microsoft recently published a similar study where they found about 90% of virus infections were through unpatched software.

Social Media isn’t just for updating your friends and sharing your latest photos, it can help you grow your business!

As of May 31, 2011, Facebook was fast approaching its 700-millionth signup. You don’t even have to tweet to enjoy Twitter.  Whether you tweet 100 times a day (please don’t) or never, you still have access to information about what interests you. Many people simply use Twitter as a way to keep up with friends and acquaintances or get the latest information on your interests.

According to a SocialWare survey, 79% of the largest Fortune 500 firms use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or corporate blogs to communicate with customers and others. And 69% of them report that their companies have gained measurable business benefits from social technologies, including more effective marketing, more innovative products and services, better access to knowledge, lower costs of doing business, and higher revenues.

So does that mean Email Marketing isn’t as effective? Absolutely not! Email Marketing is still going strong. According to an Econsultancy survey in early 2011, 72% answered that Return On Investment (ROI) of their email marketing campaigns is excellent. Also, 39.4% of marketing industry executives called Email Marketing “the most powerful advertising channel for their business”, according to Datran Media’s 2010 Annual Marketing and Media Survey.

By using social media avenues you’re able to direct people to your email campaigns. Include occasional posts with your business website or landing page. Have your website link in your social media bio information. Those who are really interested in what you’re offering will sign up (opt-in) to learn more about your information and why they should become customers or join your business. Your email campaign should give them more information about your product or service.  Include a link to your Facebook or Twitter page on your website if possible. In fact, 54% said their marketing efforts were better with both social media and email campaigns.

With social media, be sure to follow the unwritten rules, which include how often to share your marketing message. You need a combination of personal information, valuable topical information, and only 25-30% of your posts about your business. Be purposeful in what you post and you’ll develop a following who know, like and trust you. Using email to boost your social media voice and vice-versa is key to reaching more people and growing your business!

By now virtually everyone has some kind of spam filter on their computer, plus their email programs have spam filters.  Emails go through an amazing number of servers on their way from you to your recipients, and they do it sometimes in seconds.  There are two main gatekeepers (filters) to get through – the primary email server on the recipient end (like gmail or a domain where their email goes to) and the recipients’ email settings on their computers (like Outlook).  So how can your email get through the spam filter maze and be considered "deliverable"?

Here are some tips:

1. Avoid using spam words and phrases
Here are just a handful of words and phrases are flags to the spam filters:  free, legal, act now, limited time offer, call now, click here (and worse yet, click here now).  I’m sure you’ve seen the emails that use "free" with * like F*R*E*E*  but you could also choose other words, like complimentary, bonus, no cost…   When I absolutely need to use the word "free"  I might add the * at the end of it but change the color of the * to match the background, which is usually white.  It keeps the appearance of the email clean, but slides through the filters better.

2.  Avoid using the color red in your copy and headlines.
Red is loud! Email studies show that mixing colors in your fonts, even bright greens or yellows, will hurt not only deliverability but also conversion! If you can’t resist and must use color, use bold, rich colors like navy and maroon, which gives the punch of red without the flag.

3.  Avoid Excessive Punctuation Marks ??!!!
Excessive punctuation is simply not good email etiquette and is a sure red flag for filters.  One ? or ! will do the job. Promise.

4.  Don’t copy and paste from a Word document into your HTML email editor.
Now this is where I really want to use a lot of !!!!!   But this is a blog post, not an email  

MS Word uses a lot of hidden coding that simply doesn’t translate anywhere else.  It messes up web pages and spam filters hate it in email. Not to worry – there’s a way around the ugly coding.

Best practice is to type your content directly into the body of the email editor. If you need to copy text from a Word document,  first paste it into a text editor like Notepad. This usually removes the coding from your Word document. It also strips all formatting, like bold and font sizes or colors.  You must then copy the content that you put into Notepad and paste that into the email editor window (the body of your email).  Then reformat it. Formatting simply means adding the bold, color, size, paragraphs, etc.

5.  Don’t Use ALL CAPS
I understand how we want to put the most emphasis on the words that we think are most important. WHEN YOU USE ALL CAPS, IT COMES ACROSS AS YOU’RE SHOUTING OR ANGRY.  Fight the temptation to shout! There are several other ways to get your point across. Try capitalizing just the first letter of the word and putting it in Bold. Use italics (sparingly).  Or underline a word or sentence to show the reader that "this is the part of my letter I really want you to get!"

6.  Beware of Symbols
The number one spam symbol is the dollar sign. Whether it’s in your subject line or in the body doesn’t matter. Many email users have spam filters that will send anything containing this symbol or others directly to the trash. This doesn’t mean you can’t use the $ sign when appropriate, but be very careful how and where you do this.  It should only be used with an actual dollar amount, never  something like "make $$$$$ now" – I guarantee that email will have a tough time getting to your reader!   Remember the punctuation caution?  Those are symbols too, which compounds the flags. Another way symbols are abused is in trying to be clever such as "L@@k at this"  This might be ok for a single email from you to a friend, but not if you’re trying to send an email to more than a couple people at a time.

So there you have it - definitely not an exhaustive list, but these six tips will help you increase your email delivery rates. You want your emails to not only make it past the initial email server spam filters – you also want them delivered into the inbox.  While you can’t control the recipients’ inbox filters, sticking with good email etiquette will definitely improve your delivery rates!

This week Mike Cowles is taking a friend by the hand to prove he can generate $1,000 or more in one week – and his friend has zero experience online (he lays tile for a living). The training will be showcased next Monday and Tuesday as part of his Emergency Cash Marketing.  For more information check it out at http://tinyurl.com/4×3a2pz (signup ends Sunday 6/12/11 at midnight).  He said it will take some time to set up, and if you can’t invest about 2 hrs a day for a week to do what he teaches, or the program would create a hardship, it’s not for you.

From Mike: 

Cory is one of my best friends of over twenty years and recently had some surgery that caused him to not be able to work on his day job of laying tile. When he was doing tile, he did awesome, but it is taking a toll on his knees, shoulder and soul. Cory asked me for advice since he knew I was doing well…

Cory is a complete and total newbie. He’s never set up a blog or website, he hasn’t bought any IM products, etc.

As a matter of fact, he didn’t even know what a domain was until I told him yesterday! And why should he? He was making good money (in his eyes) doing tile.

I decided the best way to help Cory was to walk him through everything he needed to start generating at least $1,000 a week, and since Cory’s situation is so common and there are so many warriors that would love to have the same help and guidance, I decided to do a workshop and have Cory be my case study.

The workshop will be held this Monday and Tuesday (June 13, 14) at 4pm ET. Both 2 hour sessions will be recorded. He’ll be sharing 3 different methods for creating a "completely original product to generate ongoing cash for months."

He’s priced his two day workshop (it’s really two webinars) at $67, which is less than half what he normally charges for trainings. 

By now you might have heard that there’s been a major email breach of a major marketing company. 

The good news is that the hackers didn’t get any particularly sensitive data, such as account numbers, passwords or card details. Instead, they were only able to access lists of emails accompanied by the customer’s name.

The breach was at Epsilon, which operates online mailing lists for many major companies, including seven of the ten largest firms in America.  Were it just email addresses, the main risk would be an increase in spam. However, with the names also available, the attention will likely turn to phishing. 

This involves attempting to trick users into believing a scam email is from a legitimate source, such as an online bank or retailer, and then getting the users to hand over sensitive data. This is the very thing you should NOT do.

Steer Clear of Suspicious Links

By using real names, the scammers can produce messages a little more credible-looking and less like automated scams.  Companies don’t use links in an email for log in or filling out a form.  Many of the affected companies have already sent out emails alerting their users and, as in the case of Citi Cards, share what they will include in their communication so you know it’s really from them.

According to Epsilon, those who have already confirmed their lists were involved include 1-800-Flowers, Barclays, Best Buy, Home Shopping Network, LL Bean, Marriot, Ritz Carlton, Citi Cards, TiVo and US Bancorp.

It’s also important to note that while the sites are sending out warnings, they are not asking users to change log-in details. Any message along those lines is likely itself a scam that’s designed to get ahold of these details.

Typically scam emails disguise or change "from" email addresses so fast that you can’t effectively add them to your spam filter.

So, if you get more spam or phishing emails for awhile, remember that your best friend is the delete button.

I recently came across this story and was touched by a child’s unselfish heart.  It’s a great Life Lesson – something to think about.
——-

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.  "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.  "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.  "I’ll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.

You see, he couldn’t have the sundae because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

I’m very grateful for confirmation emails and 24 hour online banking!  The ability to check my bank account any time day or night helped me stop a thief from receiving merchandise ordered online with my debit card!

On February 3rd at 6:54 pm an email was sent to me saying I requested password help for my Sam’s Club account.  No, I didn’t make that request.  Just two minutes later another email went out confirming ‘my’ purchase of two cameras from Sam’s Club to be sent to Chicago.  I live in Dallas.

I was fortunate enough to see these emails only an hour after the transaction happened.  I immediately went to my Sam’s account, but the password had been changed.  I then checked my bank account online and saw a transaction in the amount of $1,293.67 from Sam’s Club.  It was too late to reach them (I tried), but I did reach someone at my bank’s 24 hour line for stolen cards.  The transaction was immediately put on hold.

Of course, my card had to be cancelled, which means I have to notify everyone who has that number for a recurring payment.  Plus I couldn’t  access those funds from my bank account until the matter was resolved. 

The next morning I called Sam’s Club to cancel that card and stop the shipment of the two cameras.  It took 5 calls to get to the right person.  But Julie in Chicago didn’t get the two cameras.

This is identity theft. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but I believe it was a professional hit. The delivery address may just be a place where stolen goods are shipped.  Electronics and cameras are great for that.  The ‘forgot password’ email would give the thief an opportunity to use a program (called a packet sniffer) that tracks and reads specific emails just to get password information. It wasn’t casting about for whatever might bite, but after a specific, accessible target to access the account and place an order.  It’s possible that initially only my Sam’s account was compromised, and ordered from Sam’s using my card on file.  However both accounts were compromised in the end and had to be cancelled.

I asked a lot of questions about Internet safety and banking and online accounts. I’m fortunate that my husband Mike is extremely knowledgeable about Internet technology and what can and can’t be done to compromise email.

The person I spoke with at Sam’s told me almost no one calls to stop a stolen order from shipping.  My taking this action made it easy for Sam’s to void the charge to my bank account, and the funds were released back to me sooner than they might have been.  Catching the transaction so soon made the entire unfortunate and inconvenient situation much less painful and easier to resolve.

I’ll still order online at secure sites, and I’ll continue to check my email and monitor my online bank accounts, especially when my intuition tells me to check things at odd hours like it did February 3rd.

We may be early adopters on a lot of techie stuff, but we’ve held off on the ebook readers. I can’t use my highlighter on them.  

Then last fall we started seriously checking out what’s available.  First the Kindle, then the big screen Kindle DX.  Several lesser known names.  Then Barnes and Noble’s introduced the Nook.  They missed their Christmas target date (that had to hurt).  The Nook has some very interesting features like highlighting.  For me that’s huge.  Then I discovered the Kindle has a cut and paste function that can string together what I would’ve highlighted.  That sounds very useful!

Then Apple introduced the iPad eReader with incredibly cool features.  Interestingly enough, the only negative comments I’ve heard seem to be Mac fans who want the iPad to be a full functioning computer rather than a really cool eReader.   If those comments drive Apple to further tweak the iPad, great!  Most non-Mac fans think the iPad is totally awesome.  A big brother to the iPhone.

That’s where we find ourselves.  I just got an iPhone last October (birthday gift from my iPhone owner husband).  Until then, a cell phone was just a convenient way to communicate when I wasn’t near my land line.  I had text messaging, but I didn’t have Internet access, email from my cell or any other techie features.  Of course, Mike did, and he’s always been up on all the latest and greatest tech toys, looking for fancy cell phones that did everything but laundry.  When my son got an iPhone, Mike checked it out and had to have one.  My son gave my daughter-in-law an iPhone for her birthday, so it was only fitting that I should get one too.  I took a power leap into communication and technology on the go.  Do not try to pry it from of my fingers.

Until the iPhone I wasn’t sure if I’d really use an ebook reader since I was still clutching my highlighter.   I got a Bible ap for my iPhone and discovered I enjoy reading that way.  The ap I use lets me bookmark passages to a growing list of my ‘highlights’.  An ebook reader will just make it easier than reading from a  2" x3" screen.  So I’m doing my due diligence on the features of all of the eReaders to see which one will best fit my wants and needs.  Mike’s already got his hand raised to say ‘I want the iPad.’ 

Here come the Scams.  I started writing this because I ’m now getting emails saying the iPad is great and I can have a chance to get one for free.  You might get those emails too.  Don’t fall for it.  The free chance will cost you!  Here’s the tell-tale sentence:  ’For simply completing a brief survey, and fulfilling all offer requirements, you could be on your way to a new Apple iPad! Participate now before this offer runs out.’  ‘Fulfilling all offer requirements’ means they probably will be showing you lots of things to buy to keep your name in a very large hat for drawing (if they ever really do a drawing).  The loophole, of course, is that if you’re supposed to get 3 from this page and 3 from that page (yes offers like that are real), and you find 4 on one and 2 on another or don’t want 6, then you simply don’t get entered into the ‘chance to win’.  But they get to keep your information already submitted.

Right now the Apple iPod is hot, so that’s the hook they use to get you to buy stuff.  Oh yes, they also add your information to a list that gets sold to a lot of other lists.   I entered my name and a unique, different email address one time only for something online and discovered that list has been sold and resold so many times it took nearly three years to unsubscribe from them all.  Sometimes these lists (where you originally entered your contact information)  are sold to List Brokers who then sell them several times to people buying leads. 

Not all offers are scams. Just beware of the ones that require you to accept other offers to win the original item.  Read the email offer completely and don’t feel obligated to buy things you didn’t intend to get.  You might also wind up on a lot of email lists offering even more ’stuff’. 

Nearly everyone hates spam email, and it seems like every day there’s more of it. After all, it only costs a little to send millions of emails, and if one person responds, a spammer has made a profit. But what about legitimate marketers who are sending newsletters, sales, and important information to people who want it?  You don’t want your opt-in list missing what you have to say because their spam filters accidentally got your email. Here are a few tips on how not to look like spam.

It can be tricky to deal with a spam filter, especially if your product or service has key terms similar to those used by shady marketers. No one wants their medical newsletter binned along with the "cheap pharmaceuticals" ads, after all! So, what can you do? The first step is looking at how you got the email addresses and the types of information you’re sending out. Using terms that are similar to spam messages,or collecting emails without an opt in is sure to get you marked as undesirable.

Remember that customers and potential customers are more interested in information than in your sales talk. So stick to including real information, and keep the promotional stuff to a minimum. This will increase your conversion rate, as well as the rate of emails that escape the spam filter.

So, what should you look for? First, make sure you’re not including trigger words, phrases, or other information in your email. For instance, if you include the words "click here now", you’re email is likely to be treated as spam. Most spam filters using this term to filter emails get only about a one percent false postitive rate. Opt out phrases such as "to be removed"  and "unsubscribe" are other flags for a spam filter. 

Even text colors in HTML email, such as FF0000 (that’s HTML for bright red) may get flagged.  Avoid multiple fonts and sizes, and never send an attachment unless it’s been requested.

If you’ve taken a look at your newsletter and you’re worried about it, post it online. Then, give your mailing list a link to the rest of the newsletter. The ones who are interested will click through, and the email won’t get banned. Avoid mentioning gifts, special offers, toll free numbers, and similar things, as well. It doesn’t take much to do it – just reword the most common phrases uniquely. ‘Free’ can become ‘Bonus’ or ‘No Cost’.  Certainly you can use those words in a website, but be careful when creating an email campaign or newsletter.   Weight loss and MLM marketers may face special challenges. 

Use an appropriate, accurate, short subject line that doesn’t include any of the standard spam phrases. "Hello, friend" is a quick way to get ignored. Don’t use the recipient’s name or email address in the subject line.  This used to help open rates, but now the spam filters are more sensitive to it.  Also avoid common spam terms in the first paragraph. Spell carefully, and use the right capitalization and sentence structure. Display your full name, not your email address in the "from" field. Don’t use all capital letters (it’s considered yelling at your reader) or all lower case, poor punctuation, or just your first name unless you want to be flagged.

Make sure your partners in joint ventures and cross promotions know about this, too. After all, someone else’s list could kill your letter quickly. Your carefully crafted email could get spam filtered by someone else’s "free consultation."